Tag: Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Remastered) (1962/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz  | Time – 31:15 minutes | 1,2 GB | Genre: Vocal Jazz, Christmas
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAPITOL CATALOG MKT (C92)

First issued in the early ’60s, this collection of musical Christmas cheer is packed full of the smoothly sung, sentimental favorites associated as much with Nat King Cole himself as with the season. The singer’s performance of “The Christmas Song” is an unforgettable classic reprised here twice, once in an updated version that includes a contemporary vocal from his daughter, Natalie, and also in Cole’s original 1946 recording. Other traditional religious favorites like “I Saw Three Ships” and “Away in a Manger” are also featured, in a setting that, with its well-arranged orchestral accompaniment, manages to sound both sophisticated and folksy.

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Nat King Cole – The Very Thought of You (1958/2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82 MHz | Time – 01:52:13 minutes | 4,4 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Analogue Productions

“…if you haven’t picked up every one of the Blue Note and Nat King Cole reissues from Chad Kassem and company at Acoustic Sounds, you’re really missing out!” – David W. Robinson, Positive Feedback, Issue 52

“…exquisite standards, Gordon Jenkins and his orchestra, and that achingly beautiful Capitol sound…this disc’s multiple layers offer mono, stereo and three-channel.” Sound Quality = 92% out of 100% – Ken Kessler, HiFi News, January 2011

“…Thanks to the gorgeous remastering and improved quality afforded by the format, you’ll hear every breath, as if you were in the studio alongside Cole himself during a recording session.” – The Second Disc, December 2010

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Nat King Cole – The Nat King Cole Story (1961/2013)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82 MHz | Time – 01:50:53 minutes | 4,4 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Analogue Productions

“…if you haven’t picked up every one of the Blue Note and Nat King Cole reissues from Chad Kassem and company at Acoustic Sounds, you’re really missing out!” – David W. Robinson, Positive Feedback, Issue 52

“…mastered from the original three-track work tapes is a sonic spectacular that outdoes the original by a wide margin – as does its packaging. The SACD includes three-channel and two-channel mixes. A major reissue.” Stereophile Records To Die For – Michael Fremer, Stereophile, February 2010

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Nat King Cole – 100 Essentials of Nat King Cole (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 04:40:50 minutes | 3,69 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download  | Front Cover | © BnF Collection

For a mild-mannered man whose music was always easy on the ear, Nat King Cole managed to be a figure of considerable controversy during his 30 years as a professional musician. From the late ’40s to the mid-’60s, he was a massively successful pop singer who ranked with such contemporaries as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. He shared with those peers a career that encompassed hit records, international touring, radio and television shows, and appearances in films. But unlike them, he had not emerged from a background as a band singer in the swing era. Instead, he had spent a decade as a celebrated jazz pianist, leading his own small group. Oddly, that was one source of controversy. For some reason, there seem to be more jazz critics than fans of traditional pop among music journalists, and Cole’s transition from jazz to pop during a period when jazz itself was becoming less popular was seen by them as a betrayal. At the same time, as a prominent African-American entertainer during an era of tumultuous change in social relations among the races in the U.S., he sometimes found himself out of favor with different warring sides. His efforts at integration, which included suing hotels that refused to admit him and moving into a previously all-white neighborhood in Los Angeles, earned the enmity of racists; once, he was even physically attacked on-stage in Alabama. But civil rights activists sometimes criticized him for not doing enough for the cause.

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Nat King Cole – Where Did Everyone Go? (1963/2010)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 44:18 minutes | 1,75 GB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Booklet, Front Cover | © Capitol Records/Analogue Productions XAPP1859D64
Recorded: August 13–14, 1962

This has been a totally no-expenses-spared project. Using the original 3-track work tapes from Capitol’s vaults, mastering engineers Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman along with DSD specialist Gus Skinas bring you an entirely incomparable listening experience. In addition to the stereo mixes, this download includes the original mono mix taken from separate microphone feeds, mixing consoles and tape machines at the original sessions. In order to master from the 3-track masters, AcousTech had to be outfitted for 3-channel playback. That meant Kevin Gray had to find a third identical monitoring channel chain (including mixing board, amplifier and speaker) as well as a 3-track playback headstack and also a 3-track preview head for the vinyl cutting system. It was a massive assignment. We’ve spent a fortune to include these extra bells and whistles and to make this a truly historic reissue.

In what some consider his last great album prior to his tragic passing, Nat “King” Cole approached the dramatic dark side of love in the spirit of Sinatra’s saloon songs to timeless, haunting effect with the album Where Did Everyone Go? The distinctive orchestrations of Gordon Jenkins for strings accompany the intimately expressive and supremely musical voice of the incomparable Nat “King” Cole in such classic songs as “Someone To Tell It To,” “I Keep Going Back To Joe’s,” “Spring Is Here,” “The End Of A Love Affair” and other reflections of one who had and now has not. Nat “King” Cole and arranger Gordon Jenkins followed their hit albums Love Is The Thing and The Very Thought Of You with this striking shift toward the dramatic. The result again stands among its era’s finest, most stylistically defining recordings of popular music and still retains its grand sense of tragedy and beauty.

Two bonus tracks recorded for the album, “A Farewell to Arms” and “Happy New Year,” are included for their first release in original production quality. Originally released in 1963.

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Nat King Cole – Love Is The Thing (1957/2010)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 01:12:45 minutes | 2,87 GB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Booklet, Front Cover | © Capitol Records/Analogue Productions XAPP824D64
Recorded: December 19, 28, 1956 at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

This has been a totally no-expenses-spared project. Using the original 3-track work tapes from Capitol’s vaults, mastering engineers Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman along with DSD specialist Gus Skinas bring you an entirely incomparable experience. In addition to the stereo mixes, this DSD includes a 3-track transfer for multichannel playback and the original mono mix taken from separate microphone feeds, mixing consoles and tape machines at the original sessions. In order to master from the 3-track masters, AcousTech had to be outfitted for 3-channel playback. That meant Kevin Gray had to find a third identical monitoring channel chain (including mixing board, amplifier and speaker) as well as a 3-track playback headstack and also a 3-track preview head for the vinyl cutting system. It was a massive assignment. We’ve spent a fortune to include these extra bells and whistles and to make this a truly historic reissue.

Love is the theme for 12 ballads of heavenly strings orchestrated by the distinctive Gordon Jenkins, sympathetically backing the intimately expressive and supremely musical voice of the incomparable Nat “King” Cole. Featuring such legendary classics as “Stardust” and “When I Fall In Love,” this album topped the charts upon its release, is among its era’s finest, most stylistically defining recordings of popular music and continues to enchant listeners to this day.

Love Is The Thing was recorded in finely polished monaural and more minimalistic 3-channel stereophonic versions, each with dedicated microphones, console, mix and recorders. Each offers a different sonic perspective. The monaural recording was heard on the original hit records while the stereophonic recording offers the potential for a stunning wide-range realism. Using the original first generation full-track mono and 3-track session tapes from Capitol’s vaults and custom headstacks, console and monitoring chain installed at AcousTech specially for these releases, mastering engineers Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman along with DSD specialist Gus Skinas bring you an entirely incomparable experience.

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Nat King Cole – St. Louis Blues (1958/2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:06:44 minutes | 2,64 GB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Booklet, Front Cover | © Capitol Records/Analogue Productions XAPP993D64
Recorded: January 29–31, 1958

This has been a totally no-expenses-spared project. Using the original 3-track work tapes from Capitol’s vaults, mastering engineers Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman along with DSD specialist Gus Skinas bring you an entirely incomparable experience. In addition to the stereo mixes, this SACD includes a 3-track transfer for multichannel playback and the original mono mix taken from separate microphone feeds, mixing consoles and tape machines at the original sessions. In order to master from the three-track masters, AcousTech had to be outfitted for 3-channel playback. That meant Kevin Gray had to find a third identical monitoring channel chain (including mixing board, amplifier and speaker) as well as a 3-track playback headstack and also a 3-track preview head for the vinyl cutting system. It was a massive assignment. We’ve spent a fortune to include these extra bells and whistles and to make this a truly historic reissue.

An influential figure in the early 20th century development of blues and popular music as a music scholar and the composer of numerous popular songs, William Christopher Handy has often been called “the Father of the Blues.” When two of the finest and most popular of mid-20th century musical figures, jazz and popular music icon Nat “King” Cole and style setting arranger extraordinare Nelson Riddle, undertook an album dedicated to the music of W.C. Handy, the results were at once a worthy tribute and transformative. Particularly smooth vocals by Nat King Cole were aptly backed by resourceful orchestrations from Nelson Riddle. From the landmark laments of “St. Louis Blues” and the loving appreciation of “Morning Star” on through to the colloquial rag of “Joe Turner’s Blues,” the varied facets of Handy’s songs were given a lastingly freshened interpretation. Along with the contemporary Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (also available here at Acoustic Sounds), this album is considered by many to be the best anthology of the music of W.C. Handy.

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